The present invention relates to information systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to techniques for information retrieval using book of business mechanisms.
Traditional enterprise applications use a database to separate the responsibility of managing fast access to data from the responsibility of defining business processing based on the data. This approach gave rise to a special class of information technology (IT) employee called a database administrator (DBA). In general, the DBA has the task to optimize data access to the particular needs of business processes given a particular company's data volumes.
Large data volumes are typically owned by large companies with big IT budgets, and databases are ordinarily quite good at dealing with small data volumes without constant supervision from a DBA. So, the needs of large companies and small applications are served well by the above traditional approach. Furthermore, the system artifacts produced by a DBA can be replicated. So, the DBA's effort can be packaged with the application in cases where common queries are identified that apply to all application customers.
However, the traditional approach does not cover all cases. Specifically, it is difficult for groups with small budgets to deal with large data volumes in processes where the groups require novel queries. Typically, such groups are required to employ a DBA, abandon their novel queries, or live with poor performance.
Unfortunately, the “high volume/low value/novel query” use case describes many business processes. In one example, consider the sales prospecting process. In this example, a prospecting team must work through a large volume of low value leads in order to produce a few high value opportunities. Furthermore, the team's data mining process changes frequently in order to maintain their success rate.
The “high volume/low value/novel query” use case is also demonstrated when large companies attempt to lower their total cost of ownership (TCO) for software. In such situations, companies naturally trim back on areas that do not directly generate revenue. Such companies desire lower maintenance applications that adapt to more use-cases without the cost of custom tailoring by experts like DBAs. Thus, more companies are moving toward the hosted software phenomenon, which further removes control of the data from the companies.
Accordingly, what is desired are improved methods and apparatus for solving the problems discussed above. Additionally, what is desired are improved methods and apparatus for reducing some of the drawbacks discussed above.